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[Note: this guest post is from Rick Shuri the CTO of ARInsights, the provider of the ARchitect™ARM (Analyst Relations Management) system. ]

Over time our clients ask for a variety of new features to be added to ARchitect. One of the requests was to advise them on which analysts were getting the most attention from AR staff. ARchitect users can easily get these types of reports based on the data they have entered, and analyze the data to ensure they are focusing their efforts on the most influential analysts in their market space.

However, knowing the relative importance of an analyst among all vendors was not something a client could obtain. We elected to compute a set of statistics based not on a single client, but as an aggregate of all our clients. Using this method we produced an overall ranking of those analysts that our vendor clients seem to feel are most important. Without revealing other client information it also gives an AR team a sense as to which analysts may be busy working with other vendors.

ARchitect™ Power 100 analysts are the top one hundred analysts ranked according to their activity level among all ARchitect users. These are the analysts with the most sustained “buzz” in the industry right now.

In order to create the ranking we considered a wide range of criteria which included the frequency of interactions, emails, and captured research & media as well as how recently each of the postings was entered. Obviously those analysts with a lot of current activity are high on the radar of the client teams. A ranking algorithm assigns different weighted averages to each factor and employs certain data smoothing techniques. Analysts are re-ranked daily to reflect all current aggregate activity.

The most current analyst list information is available in a number of ways:

We place a small icon next to their name on the profile page for each Power 100 analyst. This alerts Continue reading →

Last week, following the Forrester Technology Leadership Forum in Orlando, ARInsights held their second ARchitectTM Users Group meeting. ARchitect is the leading Analyst Relationship Management (ARM) system with a significant number of client companies using it. It was nice to see some of those companies represented at the meeting and the dinner that followed. Of course, there was a lot of good informal information exchange during the reception, aka the booze and schmooze.

Rick Shuri, ARInsights’ Chief Technology Officer, outlined some of the new features recently implemented as well as plans for the upcoming year. The development schedule is strongly influenced by customer requests and some discussion of what the group felt was important gave an indication of where the product is likely to be expanded. It has been our experience managing an actual ARchitect deployment that ARInsights is very responsive when it comes to listening to customer and prospect suggestions.

This is the fourth in a series of posts that will explore the resources required and the advantages gained in using a formal analyst relationship management (ARM) system. In this post we investigate how these systems can enhance collaboration. Other posts will explore metrics and look at the values that can be obtained. Your comments are encouraged.

It is 11 PM, do you know where your analyst is?

AR teams should know the perception of analysts long before the curfew of a Magic Quadrant. Getting blindsided by a presentation, or knowing you have been dropped from a short list is never fun. There are many ways to determine current analyst perception – but one not to be overlooked is simple team collaboration. This becomes especially true with larger AR teams, or those that are organizationally or geographically distributed.

Tracking your AR activities and the perceptions that analysts have about your company is not an individual effort, but requires teamwork. Methods that promote easy sharing of Continue reading →

This is the second in a series of posts that will explore the resources required and the advantages gained in using a formal analyst relationship management (ARM) system. In this post we look at some of the commercially available products. Upcoming posts will suggest some best practices in using a system, and look at the values that can be obtained. Your comments are encouraged.

Where is your ARM?

Analyst Relations programs can use systems that are built in-house or use commercially-available software either on-site or hosted. Significant factors in making the decision are the available IT support resources and the methods and resources you use to maintain the database. Some teams have also expressed concerns about data privacy with hosted applications, but these concerns are effectively addressed by commercial providers with state-of-the-art security features.

If you do elect to create and maintain the database internally you will need to plan AR resources for ongoing research and maintenance Typical AR teams do not have Continue reading →

This is the first in a series of posts that will explore the resources required and the advantages gained in using a formal analyst relationship management (ARM) system. In this post we will look at the characteristics of a good system. In future posts we will review some of the commercially available products, suggest some best practices in using a system, and look at the values that can be obtained. Your comments are encouraged.

What is an ARM?

Sales and service organizations have long used customer relationship management (CRM) systems to provide customer service, track and promote sales, and maintain general customer records. These can range across home-grown in-house systems, commercially-available software run by IT, and hosted solutions provided by outside firms. The value of these systems is well documented. Public Relations departments often track their work in PR-specific systems that fit into the same three categories. Analyst Relations teams need to look to Continue reading →

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SageCircle has launched a new website that has an embedded blog. On the website you will be able to read all the past posts and comments, the latest blog posts, review the Analyst and AR Twitter Directories, signup for SageCircle’s free AR newsletter, listen to available recorded AR Coffee Talks, and more.

To read the latest blog post, please visit www.SageCircle.com and click on blog in the left menu bar under “Main Menu.”